Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich´s Nickel And Dimed

In the book Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover into the world of minimum wage employees to research how difficult it is to live off of their salary. She splits up the book into three sections where she tackles these jobs in diverse areas to be able to compare her data. In each section Ehrenreich plows through several jobs, sometimes struggling to afford housing and food. She takes these first-hand experiences and compiles them into a book that gives readers an insight to the world of minimum wage workers. Ehrenreich begins her journey by taking time to prepare for the hardships she may face along the way. Because of this, she cheats the system a little bit by setting aside a large fund of around $1,300 to help her get by in the case that she can’t pay for housing or bills using only the wages from her job. Following this, she plans how much she can afford to pay for rent each month based off of an average minimum wage of $6 or $7. She starts her investigation by settling down in Key West, Florida, which is closest to where she normally lives. Key West has higher living expenses, leading Ehrenreich to live in a more run down cabin-type house for $500 a month. In each

She chooses Maine due to its overwhelming amount of ads asking for jobs. It takes a while for her to find a living space and spends her first few nights at a hotel which digs into her savings. She manages to find an uncomfortably small room to rent for $110 a week. She quickly finds a job opening for a maid cleaning service that pays well-$6.65 an hour; she decides to take it. Throughout the course of this job, she does get paid well but receives bad treatment from her coworkers, customers, and managers through harsh remarks. After a dispute between her and another coworker in which she tried to stand up for her coworker, Ehrenreich decides to quit and take her skills